Open Letter to Gaijin - Economy

[Morvran_ 661]

Many players have written in the past few days about the game's economy, which has especially come to light after the recent changes and I wanted to put in my 2 cents in on the matter.

 

The game's economy has always been an area of tension for many players, with the game routinely advertised as free to play, but in reality, the in-game economy is structured around either having Prem-time, which is about £10-£15 per month or a prem vehicle, which could set you back as much a £40-£60. Neither of which is strictly speaking, free to play. Whilst of course, even a free to play game must make money somehow, the gap between a free player's experience, and the prem player experience is not even close. This has recently been significantly exasperated by the fact that most of the world is currently in a recession. Many people may not be able to afford to continue paying for, in essence, their monthly War Thunder Sub and many new players may be coming to War Thunder as it is routinely advertised as "free to play", only to join the game and find a sheer cliff of farming and grinding ahead of them and so give up, long before they make it through the early ranks, or scrounge together enough money to buy a top tier premium vehicle, and find themselves woe-fully out of depth. Ruining the experience for everyone. 

 

But there is another side to all this as well. Many people right now are struggling, a friend of mine recently had to choose not buy a loaf of bread in supermarket, because he simply couldnt affort it ontop other essentials he needed. A lot of people are choosing, between basic food commodities, heating and rent. The entire world has had this for months, and not a lot is expected to change in the future. So when they do get some free time to play a game, something to distract them from all that and decide to play War Thunder, they might find themselves in the exact same situation. Not being able to take a certain vehicle because the repair costs are too much and they want to save up for a new vehicle. Or to spend doznes, if not hundreds of hours farming a gamemode just to scrape together enough SLs or RP for that new vehicle. As mentioned before, if you dont have Prem time or a Prem Vehicle. then there comes a point, where you might not even break even in an average game. and that has some scary real world parralels at the moment, that many people are probably trying to avoid by playing some video games.

I personally play mostly Air Sim, and Im in the uniquely fortunate position of having Prem time, I bought a years worth last december in the sale, and still have 6 months left. I've also acquired a number of Prem vehicles over the years in various sales and so my experience with the in-game economy is not too bad at the moment, though I do I have nearly 2000 hours on War Thunder and have been playing since 2014 and I only relatively recently feel like im in a position where SLs are not dominating my gaming experience. I very much remember how it felt to look at that next vehicle, and see no way of actually get there. The sheer, vertical cliff, with no path up it. These days, I play often, back then, it was few and far between. Despite all that however, I have to sometimes be picky. For example, I would quite like to take out the Buccaneer S2. out in some Sim matches at the moment, but even with Prem time, its a pretty much a guaranteed SL loser (and not just a little, you can loose a lot, very quickly in the Buc), due to its 33k respawn cost and relatively low SL/Min rating. and I am currently trying to stockpile my SLs a little so I can buy some new vehicles as and when I unlock them. So I choose to fly other aircraft in sim instead, ones with more reasonable repair costs where I can at least break even, or if lucky, make a little profit. Though often, I might spend an hour or more in a Sim match, playing to the best of my abilities, maybe even playing, in my opinion, very well, only to finish the game having lost SLs. All that time, all that effort, and I was better off when I started. An F-14 player in a match I was in today was 20-5, and still lost SLs. More often than not, I spend most games playing defensively, avoiding a fight, a perticular objective, because its simply not worth it

 

So I have found myself needing to take a premium vehicle out, just to replenish my SL bank. Often thats the HMS Belfast in a couple of NRB matches. Having to play an entirely different gamemode, because the economy is a bit better, is not right.

And that's the biggest issue of them all. Many players are not playing War Thunder. They are playing War Thunders Economy. Deciding what they play, not based upon what they may find fun, but based upon what will net them more SLs/RPs or maybe even just what won't loose them SLs and that is never fun. The economy should allow players to play what they want, when they want, without being punished for it. Without being made to feel like they've wasted their time and currently, that is the current state of the game economy, Even with prem-time, you can feel like you've made absolutely no progress at all. 

Edited May 21, 2023 by Morvran_